Corruption Curse
by Divinehorror
Summary: Long after the reforming of Spherus Magna, Tahu finds himself on one of it's moons, Lunas Magna. However, all is not as it seems and he became infected by a strange, demonic disease that corrupted him. He became Shadow Tahu and Shadow Tahu was not a good person to be. Hunted by the planet's protectors, the Toa Omni , he must find out what the infection is and how to destroy it.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Downpour

Heavy rain thundered down on Omni Nui, capital city of Lunas Magna. The drops of water played out drumbeat rhythms on the city; tap-tapping on the domed glass and steel buildings ominously. A grey sky, thick with fog and dark clouds hung over Omni Nui like a disease. A lonesome carriage raced through the skyway chutes, the main form of transport across the planet.

A single figure in the centre of the carriage looked out of the windows to the inside of the chute, the walls one-way mirrors, allowing him to see down to the solemn city below.

The carriage shuddered. The figure in the carriage stirred as it drew to an abrupt stop. Strange. It wasn't even near the station. With a pneumatic hiss, the door slid open sideways, revealing a head poking through the doorway. The sound of the rain outside was louder now.

Normally, people weren't allowed in the chutes, except for maintenance. After all, with the 200 mph carriages shooting through, it wasn't exactly safe. Or legal. But this person cared neither about safety, nor legality.

On the head was a Kanohi Kentus, mask of technology. That was what stopped the carriage, then. The head, and the rest of the body that it belonged to, stepped inside the carriage, the door closing behind him, cutting off the sound of the rain again.

"Look, sorry to be all cloak and dagger about this, but... Well, your money or your life," the person, a tall, lanky male Vortixx, sighed. The other figure laughed. He flicked the hood of his cloak back, revealing a golden Kanohi Hau, covering a pair of piercing green eyes that could cut steel. The mouth was twisted into a wicked sneer. He threw the tattered cloak off, showing his black and red, protosteel armour-covered body. He was tall, albeit not as much so as the Vortixx, but still tall, with arms like tree trunks and strong, thick legs. Two belts stretched in an X across his chest. All over his body were spikes: big spikes, small spikes, serrated spikes, thick spikes, thin spikes, spikes that Mata Nui only knows where they could possibly have came from. Shadow Tahu cackled at the Vortixx.

"My money or my life? Let's flip that around a bit, shall we?" the Vortixx was frozen stiff as Shadow Tahu spoke, "how about your money or your life? Or, and I like this one even more, just your life? Yes?"

The Vortixx's mouth was wide open. They could turn and run, but it's not exactly the thing that occurs to you most when you see a rather menacing looking former Toa of fire, now merged with both light and darkness.

"What an interesting thing to say!"

With that comment, Shadow Tahu shot two black, vine-like tentacles from his wrists. They were covered in a sticky, oozy, slick tar, yet he managed to grip them with ease. They continued to extend and passed across his palms, him easing them through with his clawed fingers.

The Vortixx bolted it, but it was too late. He couldn't even get to the door of the carriage before the tentacles had wrapped themselves around his neck and began to squeeze the air from his biomechanical lungs. Tahu smirked. The Vortixx choked.

With a sadistic chuckle, Shadow Tahu lit the liquid on the tentacles. Needless to say, the Vortixx didn't last long. From within the soundproof carriage, nobody could hear him yell out for help as his life began to drain away.

Tap tap tap tap tap.

The rain slapped against the top of the chutes, trying to find a way in. And if it couldn't find a way in, it sure seemed like it could make one.

After the fall of Teridax on Bara Magna, the planet was restored to it's old likeness- a thriving planet. The planet of Aqua Magna had evacuated there and were inhabiting the newly formed Spherus Magna with Toa and Matoran, while teaching the Agori and Glatorian the ways of the elements and Kanohi. Ships discovered life one of the smaller moons, Lunas Magna, and lived there too. Many groundbreaking things were found on Lunas Magna, such as the lunar radiation given off by a crystal on the planet that gives everyone to come across it the element of Moon.

Cities popped up over Lunas Magna like zits on an adolescent Matoran's face. Lunas Magna was a place of industry and new jobs, but still with glorious sights, such as the Crystal Plains or the Jade Mountains.

Tahu, a teacher, Toa of Fire and one of the ones responsible for the destruction of Teridax, took this as an oppurtunity. He travelled to Lunas Magna to teach the Toa ways there.

He had taken his Golden Hau, enchanted by Mata Nui to be fused with the element of Light, to the crystals to get it fused with the element of Moon, too, but something went wrong. The stone had been corrupted. Instead of giving him powers over Moon, it had a grislier side affect. Tahu became Shadow Tahu. He was mutated into a monster. His once pure mind was thrown into anarchy, fighting with itself for power over him.

The self-conflicting Toa became an outcast because of his mutations. He was hated. The good part of him retreated to the light side of his still golden mask, by his own doing, and he was taken over with unquenchable determination to find the ones who corrupted the crystal and turned him into this monster. One way, or another.

Shadow Tahu became a legend on Lunas Magna. Some thought of him as a protector, killing thieves and thugs, but others thought him a criminal, a murder, a psychopath. In truth, he was both. He killed to find the ones who did this to him, and he liked it.

Shadow Tahu stepped out of the empty carriage to a deserted station. Whitewashed walls were greying with damp and age, tiles were cracked. This was one of the oldest parts of Omni Nui, and it showed. The vigilante flipped up his hood and wandered almost blindly outside into the rainy chorus of aqueous drumbeats. It was pouring down thick and fast, battering him. At one point, this rain would have soddened his spirit, but now it angered him.

How dare the sky rain on him? The very nerve of it!

The thunderstrikes were like laughter, booming and magnificent; mocking him. He growled, showing his teeth like a lowly Rahi.

'Best to just get the the site and leave,' he thought to himself. If he had said it aloud, it would have no doubt been muttered with a pang of annoyance.

The Old Quarter of Omni Nui is especially known for its' factories and warehouses, supplying the great city with most of its' goods and resources. In one of these, an energy farm, some odd goings on had occurred. Odd goings on were Shadow Tahu's specialty.

He walked loathingly past the dilapidated, melancholy houses, looking through badly boarded-up windows to bleak, abandoned interiors. He was getting near the factory, he knew that much from the smell.

Sulphur. The smell of death and poison and rotting eggs. He hated the stuff. Though, in honesty, there wasn't much he liked since his situation had started.

The factory dominated the horizon, sticking out like a sore thumb but somehow fitting in with the empty greyness. There was little noise, minus the rain, as if the factory absorbed it all into it's abyssal sinistry.

And then, in the silence-but-not-quite-silence, the almost lack of sound was broken. A shout. A scream?

* * *

Rintak yelled out in pain as a flurry of fists collided with his slim, golden frame. The lime green highlights glowed intensely, eerily lighting up the alleyway, his attackers splaying pools of darkness behind them. Their faces were lit up in greenness, their cackling smiles, their deathly eyes. They were going to kill him.

Rintak the Thunderstrike was once a name to be feared. He was a powerful 'trader' in the Omni Nui criminal underworld, supplying the richest of the rich with everything they needed for the little ounce of oomph that life alone couldn't give them. Often, that little oomph was powdered and required the users to be Kanohi-less at the time of intake.

But Rintak was not that person any more. He had come clean. He had done his time. So why did these things still catch up with the old soldier?

He didn't even remember what he had done to 'wrong' this current gang. Rip them off? 'Accidentally' kill one of their members? All things he would no longer even consider, yet unfortunately, at one time, would have.

And now he was alone, on the brink of demise at the hands of a group of cackhanded, useless lowlives that couldn't even get the job done properly. He had tried to use his Kanohi Kakama, mask of speed, to get away, but their leader- a particularly angry Lower-Class Steltian, had absorbed the mask power by using his mask of absorbtion and was now swarming him with super-speed punches and kicks. How humiliating.

He would have tried to make use of some of the lightning, but couldn't move his hands enough under the restraints of the other gang-members. Rintak cried out in pain once more as the leader struck him hard in the side of the face.

"Rintak the Thunderstrike, eh? Hah! Not so good without your sparks, are you, sparky?" the leader howled. The others guffawed as if it were much funnier than it actually was.

"Funny, that, how you know my name yet I haven't a single clue as to what petty crook is going to make a mockery of my death. I mean, come on, not exactly the most exciting murder! Beaten to death? Anyone can be beaten to death! But, I dunno, electrocuted to death? Now that'd be ironic!"

In any situation other than one where Rintak wasn't out of breath and choking from the hand that found itself around his neck about halfway through speaking, his speech would've came across a little better, but the gang members seemed to be aggravated by it, exactly as Rintak expected. He giggled to himself with a deep, gravelly voice that frankly shouldn't be allowed to giggle. Better to get some amusement out of the situation of his death and savour it while it lasts.

Rintak spat in the face of the Steltian and he dropped the older man, hands frantically scrambling over his face. Some other gang members offered their hands to help, which were gratefully batted away. He took the opportunity to break free of their weakened grasps and swing a haymaker into the Steltian's face. He may be old, but he still was in near perfect shape. The gang members fell silent. Rintak giggled. The Steltian fell.

"That was easy."

He had taken out their leader, now the others were angry. Like pack Rahi, they drew around him, circling him. A huge group of them, ringing him like hungry Nui-Jaga.

Shadow Tahu saw the punch and stifled a laugh. These thugs sure were something new; no thug from his time would've fallen under one single punch. Although the thugs from his time called themselves the Dark Hunters, and they were a force not to be reckoned with.

Rintak let out another bout of laughter, louder this time. The speckles of green all across his body glowed harder, causing the gang members and even Tahu to step back, though significantly less for the latter. Rintak clenched his fists into balls. A pale green aura started to form around them. One of the thunderclouds above boomed louder and, in the terrible drumbeat, a huge spider's web of greenness cracked out across the sky like a cattailed whip. The old soldier was summoning his element of green lightning.

Finally, his eyes began to grow bright white, as more green lightning snapped out from the crowds. A huge lightningbolt struck straight down on him.

He let go of his fists.

In one swift motion, Rintak the Thunderstrike re-earned his namesake. The lightning channeled itself through him and out of his hands, directed straight into the majority of the group.

This whole process took under ten seconds, yet, for the gang members, it felt like hours, played out before them in slow motion.

The dust settled.

They were dead. All of them. Kaput. Rintak grinned. Shadow Tahu let off a quiet "woah". This guy was powerful.

Rintak must've caught some noise Tahu made, because he turned around to face him. He didn't recognise the firelord at first, but it clicked together in his brain.

"I thought they'd have sent someone a little more than just a few grunts to kill me, but I wasn't expecting it to be the legendary Shadow Tahu. In fact, I didn't even know you were in this business. Well, if I must deal with you..."

Rintak trailed off. Shadow Tahu shook his head.

"That's some impressive stuff you did there," he said simply. The corner of Rintak's mouth cracked.

"Certainly was! I hear you're quite the elemental hotshot yourself- some people have even started saying things like that you can set people on fire, just by looking at them!"

Rintak was giddy, like a Ga-Matoran on her graduation. Tahu snorted.

"Is that what they say? Hah, I guess they would say that, yet they forget entirely to mention the times when I've ripped someone's arms off for information, did they?"

"They... Might have. I'm Rintak," the old soldier said, bending over to pick up his weapon that the thugs had taken from him- a huge, almost too big, axe. The blade itself was rippling with electrical life, cracking green sparks everywhere. Under the heavy rain, it did make a lot of sparks.

Shadow Tahu sized up Rintak. Tahu was taller than him, and Rintak was slimmer, with a weaker, aged build. He was mostly gold, with pale lime green stripes and bulbs covering him. Most interesting was the right hand- it looked entirely mechanical.

"The hand, eh? Good story, that," Rintak said, noting Tahu staring at it. The hulking Toa of Fire shook his head, as if trying to dislodge water from non-existent hair, and looked back up to Rintak's face.

Shadow Tahu raised his hand, gently edging a fireball out of his palm with his thumb and forefinger.

"Wait, I thought we were-"

Bang.

That was the sound the thug about to strike Rintak down made as his head was blasted off by the fireball.

"I think you were saying about your hand."

"Ah, yes, the hand. Well, I was a young lad, being tracked by a Toa team. Toa Omni, they called themselves. I don't know if they're even still around, but because of them, I nearly wasn't. One of them, a Toa of Plasma, vaporised my bloody hand! I would've killed him, if I wasn't being overpowered by the other fools in his team."

Tahu bared his teeth.

"Do NOT call Toa fools! What I did to that thug, I could easily do to you."

"What I did to all the other thugs, I could easily do to you, too."

Tahu grinned like a cheshire cat.

"Then we're evenly matched."

He turned away from the alleyway and proudly walked towards the factory on the skyline. In less than seconds, Rintak was beside him. The white glow on his Kakama subsided and jt turned back to it's ordinary, golden sheen.

"Where are you going, Mr Oh-So-Infamous Shadow Tahu?" he sung, laughing.

"I'm going to a very important place."

"How important?"

"Extremely important."

"That's pretty important, I guess. I'm coming with you."

Tahu faced Rintak. The mutant narrowed his eyes and spat, "you're not."

"I am! And there's nothing you can do about it!" the old man laughed, walking on with a spring in his step through the cracked streets as rain poured off his golden armour.

"You're really not. I'll blast your goddamned head off if I have to."

"Hmmmmm- nope! You won't! I'm too fast for you, Hotshot!"

Rintak's Kanohi began to glow again, lighting up the street like it hadn't been for a while, and he ran a ring around Tahu, giggling the whole time.

"Mask of Speed, Hotshot! You can't kill someone that you can't catch!"

Now it was Tahu's turn to laugh. A throaty, deep laugh, thundering like the sky. He lifted a hand up and shot out three tentacles from his wrist, all wrapping themselves around Rintak's limbs, leaving his robotic hand free. The white glow on his mask faded. Rintak was speechless.

"You may come with me, if the only sounds that come out of you are those of you fighting whatever messed up creatures we find."

"Ooh, fighting, eh? Sounds like fun!"

"Not for them," Shadow Tahu retorted, brushing the wetness off his cloak shoulders.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Black and White

A Toa of Earth stood on a metal walkway above one of the city chutes, surveying the cite. There was a rather large hole blasted in the roof beside the walkway and one of the protective bars to stop people falling from the top- which civilians don't even have access to anyway- was bent slightly.

Kringe, being his Toa Team's newest member, was always sent on the boring missions. Somebody broke into a chute. Big whoop. But that was far from the truth, and the truth was far from boring.

The Toa Omni, of which Kringe was the youngest member, acted as the detectives on Omni Nui. They had androids to do the average policing jobs; to capture crooks, interrogate and jail them; but only a being with actual, non-artificial intelligence can do the important stuff- detective work. Only someone with a deal of intellect, information and life knowledge can infer and make moral decisions. Androids just aren't good at that. And, though he hated to admit it, Kringe was.

In appearance, this was just a hole in a chute. But paired with the information that the notorious Shadow Tahu, antagoniser of Omni Nui, had been reported to have been in the area after the hole was spotted, the hole meant more.

Not long ago, Kringe had checked all of the carriages. It was a boring, routine job- checking for damage. After all, if someone is willing and capable of smashing a hole in reinforced steel, then what's a little more damage to get in a carriage? Apparently, quite a lot, as they were all in fine condition. It didn't make sense. But Kringe wasn't thinking properly. He was bored stiff. This tiny, trivial detail meant nothing more to him than that Shadow Tahu could use carriage doors, but not chute doors.

This left another question: how would he have stopped a 200 mph carriage without damaging it? However, this was not a question that Kringe asked.

The young Toa of Earth flipped up a datapad and punched in a few notes. It seemed very clear to him that it was a hijacking. This lacked all ounces of logic; the carriage was on its' last trip of the day and it'd be completely pointless to hijack it.

Kringe called for the area to the cordoned off until it was fixed and that, since there were no pointers to Shadow Tahu's location, they couldn't investigate further. A simple hijacking, he said.

If he were to know the whole truth, he would realise that, hidden inside one of the carriages, stuffed inside the engine compartment, was a dead Vortixx, complete with Fireblossom II explosive charges, ones that make a hole just like the one in the chute roof, and that the very same Vortixx possessed a Mask of Technology capable of stopping the train. And, if they were to look on a molecular scale, they would also see the traces of the same black substance found wherever Shadow Tahu had used his tentacle whips.

But they didn't.

* * *

"Yeah, just a normal mission. He's been at it again, hijacked a carriage."

It was a rather throwaway comment, the other Toa Omni didn't take much note of it. A normal mission, after all, and Kringe's detective record wasn't all that untrustable- he was probably right. Just a hijacking. Simple. Black and white. It could have been better solved by an android, they leave no exceptions, do no lazy carriage checks. The only thing wrong is that, while they can put two and two together to make four, they can't put two and two together with the use of inference to make five, like a detective can. There was once a being, a Skadi, who could get two and two to make five without the use of inference, simply a quite literally insanely overactive imagination, but his name was Vezon, and Vezon was oftentimes an exception.

Zyalho, a Toa of Air, glanced towards Kringe. The Toa of Earth looked questioningly towards his teammate, who laughed. He could find humour in anything.

"So, what next?"

The question was answered rather quickly by a roaring explosion. It was far away, but it would be difficult for them to have not heard it, even from their position.

* * *

Shadows enveloped the pair as they entered the factory. The doors were easy enough to open, especially since the locks were destroyed. Sheared off entirely, in fact. Neither Rintak nor Tahu questioned it, though, as it only helped them. The locks did look complicated.

Tahu held up a hand and snapped his fingers, summoning a ball of flame into his palm. He rolled it around, playing with it, getting the feel of it. The fire cast deep black gashes in the otherwise now well-illuminated room from Shadow Tahu's fingers. The machinery seemed mostly intact; and the only damage caused to it appeared to be rather fresh, too. The ground was smeared with smudge marks and scuffs. It sure was evacuated in a hurry. The silence was broken by Rintak.

"Hey look at that!"

He pointed a single, golden finger to a machine that looked like an engine. It would have looked even more like an engine, if it didn't have a huge piece of metal sticking out of the side of it. Rain from outside dripped in through a rusted hole in the corrugated iron roof, causing a quiet river of white hot sparks to pour from the engine's new intrusion as more water smacked down on the engine.

"Something's been putting up quite the struggle here... Something considerably strong. Let's keep moving."

"Sure thing, Hotshot."

"Don't call me that."

"Sure thing, Hotsh-"

"Don't."

"Fine... Ho- oh, ok, ok, calm it, it was a joke."

Tahu removed his hand, and the fireball in it, from beneath Rintak's chin. The old soldier sighed in relief.

Shadow Tahu continued to stride forwards, gliding through the darkness. Being an ex-Toa, he was used to dingy caverns where you couldn't see the hand in front of your face- this factory was easy for his adapted eyes, especially with the fire to help light it up. Almost home. Minutes of walking through the labyrinth of the factory floor, around pipes and terminals, more engine-like machines, odd pumps and pistons, vats and silos, the two reached the centre of the factory.

In the middle of the clearing was a huge support pillar that stretched up to the roof like a god, holding up the factory roof. There was an odd lump slouched up against the side of the pillar, bathed in darkness. It was impossible to see what it was clearly, but they could make out multiple spikes on the surface. Shadow Tahu brought his hand up and flicked it forwards, catapulting the fireball towards the lump. It slunk through the air skulkily, leaving the two inspectors behind in darkness. Their eyes followed the fireball as it sauntered towards the lump and...

Disappeared.

Just like that. It had disappeared out of thin air. Tahu cursed under his breath.

"Well, isn't that language rather fruity, indeed?"

Tahu looked at Rintak, but he knew it wasn't him. The voice was too feminine. They both looked towards the lump. It stirred animalistically. Then it stood up.

The lump was very tall, with long, slender legs and a slim body. Their figure was fit and obviously female by the chest and arms. The body was still difficult to make out, just a standing silhouette, but one thing was obvious. It was very spiky.

Tahu cast up another fireball the size of his head and held it in his hand. A circle of light covered the main opening around the pillar, showing the 'lump' to the other two properly for the first time.

She was wearing a white Kanohi Felnas, Mask of Disruption, and the rest of her armour was a mixture of white and black, covered in jagged spikes.

She looked at Tahu the same way he looked at her. Eyes wide, mouths mixed between opening and closing. Another with the same mutations?

Rintak took for his axe, but the woman was fast. She shot a tentacle straight for him from her wrist, only to be intercepted by another from Shadow Tahu, ripping hers from it's original line of fire.

"Back off, freak," she spat.

"Look at yourself, you're just like me. I'm no more of a freak than you are," laughed Tahu in reply. She hissed at him, sending another tentacle for his neck, which was also stopped by one of his own. They were locked. A twinkle in her blue eyes shone as she started to freeze the liquid on her tentacles.

"You're using ice against fire, rookie," Tahu pointed out, as fire spread down his tentacles. Her ice dissipated quickly and his fire almost jumped onto her tentacles, but she retracted them swiftly to avoid just that.

Then, with a bang like none other he had heard that day, Rintak's thunder axe collided with the side of her head. She was out cold.

* * *

When the woman awoke, she was chained to the pillar in the centre of the clearing. Tahu was sulking in the corner like a bad child, watching from a distance. He hadn't been allowed to go near her by Rintak for one good reason- he seemed very content with having her dead rather than alive. To examine the infection on her body better, he had claimed, though Rintak thought it better to go with good, old fashioned interrogation. Just like the old days. Shadow Tahu glared at him from a distance, teeth showing.

"Alright then, name, please?" he asked, smiling with mock sweetness.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Erith. I promise you, I'll make sure you don't forget it, old man."

"Ooh, scaaary. I'm shaking, really."

"Shake while you can, because soon there won't be much of you left to shake at all!"

Erith's Felnas started to glow bright white, the sign of it's power being put into effect. These Kanohi had a very unpredictable power that made one ability of another being go completely out of control, often with devastating outcomes. Upon noticing the mask glowing, Rintak took to his heels, aided by his own mask, a Kakama. He was too late, however, and Erith's Kanohi power had already begun to act on Rintak.

He tried to slow to a halt, but found it near impossible to even manage a turn. No, instead of stopping, he just got faster. By now, Rintak was running around the clearing every which way, frantically avoiding anything large, hard or metal. And they describe a lot of things, when in a factory. Shadow Tahu stood up and rolled his eyes back, muttering something about having to do it himself.

Narrowly avoiding a collision with Rintak, Tahu snaked his way in front of Erith. She looked down at him with teeth bared in Skadi-like fashion and he looked back blankly. Since she met him, Erith had hated everything about this person, without even knowing his name. She despised everything about him, from his golden mask that didn't match his body to the way he hardly said anything, she resented the lot. But the one thing about him that absolutely made her blood boil was the way he was so much like her- his mutations, tactics, abilities- even the way he growled at his companion.

In one swift swing, Shadow Tahu brought his fist down on the chain keeping her in place, shattering a few links and sending the rest of the rusted metal down to the floor with a crash. Instinctively, Erith raised her fists and took up a defensive stance. He just stood there, slouched back, arms dangling by his sides.

Taking this advantage to the fullest, she threw a punch at his head. Tahu smirked as he dodged to he side, then shifted back to his original position. Erith scowled at him and he did back, matching her scowl and raising it threefold.

The distraction was enough for her to stop concentrating on her Kanohi Felnas, so Rintak quickly found control over his own two feet again. Within seconds flat he was by Tahu's side.

"Why in Karzahni did you take the chains off?" Rintak questioned, while Tahu ducked under a punch.

"Bored."

Erith let out a frustrated yell as she hurled another fist, this time landing on Tahu's shoulder.

"I just unchained you, I wouldn't go punching me, if I were you. I actually came here to try to help- we suffer from the same infection and I'm trying to find a way to get rid of it. So I suggest, and while I may say 'I suggest', it's really more of a command, you stop trying to punch me and just leave with us quietly."

Then, a thunderbolt struck down on the factory roof, jumping straight through and into a large, rather self-important looking generator. It exploded with a shower of sparks and a ball of fire, rapidly growing, consuming the factory around it. Tahu's mask flashed bright white and a protective, golden shield enveloped the three. The red hot, firey explosion blossomed out around them like a morning flower, orange with death, tongues and forks and thorns of heat lashing and slashing out like an enraged Vorox. By the time Tahu's shield had faded, the explosion was just a series of rather angry-looking fires peppering all over the factory, plumes of smoke and ash mixing with the heavy rain.

"Well, that escalated quickly."

Tahu clipped Rintak around the ear for the comment and grabbed Erith's arm. She gave little resistance, instead staring into the fires. The one she hated had just saved her from the bane of her kind: flames.

"Erith, move it!" Tahu shouted over the roaring fires. He dragged at her arm with ferocity, leading her past flame-encompassed machines and crates.

"Hotshot, this isn't the way out!"

Shadow Tahu ignored Rintak's nickname for him and launched a fireball into the steel walls ahead of him, which hit with a splat, flattening out against the surface and boring a hole through. He stepped through the white-hot metal ring, dragging Erith behind him, followed by Rintak.

By the look of the fire, people would be there soon. They had to leave. Quickly.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Jade Forgets

It took a mere matter of minutes for the Toa Omni to arrive at the scene of the explosion- an old energy factory. Jorvell, a Toa of Iron, lead the team towards it, the others behind him in no particular order.

Jorvell stopped as he reached the wall factory and stood with hands on hips, judging up a plan. His face quickly brightened up. The Toa of Iron made two hand gestures towards the wall and it tore open, his elemental power coming into effect, making a hole big enough for them to fit through if they went two at a time. They were met with thick, black smoke and chemical fumes from the huge, storing batteries burning, and, of course, a roaring blaze.

The Toa were there to deal with any casualties, then to try and find Shadow Tahu and whoever he had with him. This was the part Jorvell disliked: casualties first. It always meant the crook got away. He pushed a few buttons on his datapad, calling a squad of police enforcers to track down Shadow Tahu. They should stall him, but, from experience, he knew how to deal with police. Good thing they were only androids.

It was quickly decided after a short scout by the rest of Jorvell's team that there were no people in the factory, and probably hadn't been for a while, but there were signs of commotion by one wall near a clearing around the central pillar, one of the few things not currently on fire. One of the most obvious signs that somebody had been there was the gaping hole in the wall.

"Scout the area, it could give some signs as to where our little criminal's off to. Go!" He barked, sending Kringe and Hikata, a Toa of Water, back into the fire. Hikata went to work like a machine, using the moisture from the air outside to create huge spouts of water, murky black from the polluted air, to put out the blaze. It left a nasty smell that stung the eyes and throat, but otherwise put out the fires fine. However, it took far longer than expected and seemed to yield no clues whatsoever. The factory was too far gone into the depths of despair for it to be worth trying to use Kringe as a detective like they usually did, yet the idea of waiting until the next time Shadow Tahu showed up seemed like a bad idea to Jorvell.

"Kringe, you just did a mission concerning Shadow Tahu, anything we can gather from the two occurrences? A carriage hijacking with a hole in a chute and then a factory blown almost entirely off the map? This isn't like him. This factory hasn't been used for months. Two mindless acts of vandalism isn't at all like anything he's done before. No dead criminals here... Unless they were incinerated. But my Tryna would be able to sense them if they were," Jorvell said, asking Kringe a question yet doing all the detective work himself.

"Sir! You'll want to see this!" Hikata shouted, as she bounded towards him, out of breath.

"You've finished putting out the fires?"

"Better. We've found bodies."

* * *

"What does this have to do with the explosion?"

"Well, I was putting out some minor fragment fires around this alleyway, and saw these. Dead thugs. Singe marks, brother."

"Could've been lightning, from the storm." Kringe suggested.

"Sure, it's an idea, but isn't it odd for Shady's main murder victims to be dead after two times in which he popped up in the same sector after blowing a factory-shaped hole off the industrial estate? And also, look at ugly there's face. That's a bruise. You don't get bruised from lightning," Zyalho, Toa of Air, chirped in his adolescent-sounding voice.

"The point still stands," Jorvell said, "there was lightning involved. The singe marks are evidence enough. They're spiderweb singes- haywire trails of charredness, whereas fire leaves horrible, black, burnt patches. It couldn't have been a lightning strike; the roofs of these houses have lighningrods. Shadow Tahu must be with someone, someone adept with their lightning element."

"That still doesn't explain the explosion..." Kringe muttered, mainly to himself.

* * *

"That was really something, wasn't it!" Rintak laughed. Tahu and Erith shot him a pair of glares sharp enough to make daggers jealous.

"It's too coincidental," Tahu grumbled. Rintak nodded. The golden-clad elder pulled a serious face.

"Those lightning rods would've diverted it, that's the point of them. Somebody set that up, tried to kill us dead with lightning. And there's only one person here who can do that," she said. Erith looked at Rintak and growled.

"He tried to kill us!"

Shadow Tahu pushed Rintak to the side and stood in front of him, in the way of Erith, who was wrestling a tentacle out of her wrist.

"He doesn't use normal lightning. I know it sounds stupid, but his is... Green."

"Green lightning! Don't know how I make it, but it's useful."

"Shut up."

"Whatever you say, Hotshot."

"And how did you know he uses lightning, anyway?" Tahu interrogated, standing high above Erith. He looked out of place, taller than both of them by far. Erith took a step back and held up her hands.

"Ok, ok, it wasn't him, I get it, geez."

"How did you know he uses lightning?"

"I just-"

Tahu's state intensified. His eyes burst with eerie darkness.

"ANSWER ME."

Two tentacles shot from his wrists. The spikes covering his body grew out, cutting through his cloak, which was in bad condition anyway, leaving it as almost a pile of rags. Flames burst out of his hands, shoulders and back, destroying the cloak further, and brightening up the pitch night sky. Rain evaporated before it even touched the orangey tips of the fires. It sure was an image that wouldn't leave their minds for some time, etched into it unremovably like it was put there by a hammer and chisel. Or a drill.

Erith was on the floor now, with Even-Shadowier Tahu's huge arms bearing down on her like he weighed 10 tonnes.

"Call off your mask!" Rintak begged her, but she wasn't using it. She wrangled and grappled to not be crushed by Shadow Tahu, but it seemed dire. The scene was interrupted by the droning, robotic voice of a police android.

"Stop in the name of the-"

If this was a comic book, you would be expecting a page entirely filled with the word 'kapow'.

What was left of the android's head rolled off it's spasming frame, landing with a thunk. However, androids cannot make moral choices. They don't know when to back down. An entire squad of police androids ran at the group. Shadow Tahu didn't even use his Golden Kanohi Hau, he just batted them away like yesterday's lunch with his huge arms. The majority were crushed, many were set on fire, and some even got impaled on his spikes. He let out a victory roar, then started to return to 'normal', if you'd call his form normal. His spikes shrunk considerably, the fires were out, the flame-grilled cloak hung loosely around his neck, pieces falling off it constantly.

"A sorry would be nice," Rintak pouted. Tahu growled at him.

"I wasn't even trying to kill you, you have no right to complain."

"Does that mean I do?"

"No, because I saved you earlier. Now you just don't owe me anything."

"I'll take it."

The three left Omni Nui silently, avoiding more police patrols, with Rintak leading them down the safer, less checked-upon routes that he knew from his old job. They couldn't complain about much, other than the company: two psychotic mutants and an even more psychotic, irritating, old, ex-drug dealer. Tahu still pondered over how Erith could have known what she did about Rintak, but it was predominantly in the back of his mind.

It took a few days of a silent, full on hike for them to reach their next location. Tahu wasn't just making it up as he went along, no, he had a strict and precise plan to find out how to cure his infection. Since he didn't find any help for a cure in the factory, his next place to check out was a mythical cave in the Jade Mountains, that he hoped would hold a very important clue. The cave wasn't actually mythical at all, fortunately, and the clue it held was massive. They just didn't know it at the time.

In the early days of Lunas Magna, a sickness was around in some of the villages. The specifications of the sickness are lost in time, but Tahu saw it as a clue. He studied into this sickness and discovered that it's supposed origin lay in a legendary moving chamber in the Jade Mountains, in a powerful artefact. What was this artefact? Well, that's the problem. The Lunas Magna chroniclers weren't very good at their job.

The cave had earned the name 'The Cave of Infections', because the first person that went in there, a tunneller, began to suffer from the sickness, which soon spread. An entire village was wiped out by the authorities, who sent in androids to cull them. Suppose some escaped? The sickness would have lived on. This is what Tahu hoped of.

"Ugh, these mountains are so damned steep. Remind me why we didn't choose to get to the summit by the path?" Rintak moaned. Erith sighed, it seemed the jade-green slopes were exhausting her too. A few pebbles the colour of malachite slipped from beneath one of her feet. The 'ting ting ting' of them skipping down the scarcely vegetated, almost dangerously sheer mountainside sounded like a high pitched laugher. The mountains were teasing her. Shadow Tahu, who was higher up than they were, on a vertical outcropping covered in moss, resting, looked down to them, watching their bodies move closer, bathed in moonlight.

"Bone Hunters could ambush us if we stuck there. We're going this way. Safer. Stop complaining."

Erith's hand slipped on a loose stone and she began to slip downwards, until she quickly took hold of the nearest sturdy point- Rintak's leg. The two were about to turn into a pile of armour and splattered mechabio-mass at the foot of the mountain, but Tahu shot out a tentacle, which wrapped itself around Rintak's arm. Rolling his eyes over-dramatically, he slowly retracted the tentacle, dragging the two up to his position.

"You two are so heavy."

"Not my fault, I said to take the path. Nobody falls off the path. You said to go this way, so YOU can stop complaining," Rintak said. Tahu growled.

"No, you're right, nobody falls off the path," Erith pointed out, "people are pushed off the path. If anyone falls here, it's their own fault."

"Well, aren't you two cheery?"

"No. What reason have we to be cheery? Any cheer I once had has gone off on a game of hide-and-seek that I am just not playing," Tahu responded. Erith nodded, rubbing the blade of one of her daggers in boredom.

"This is gonna be a long night," the old man sighed as he slouched back a bit and stared up into the moon.

* * *

"Have you got the, y'know, the stuff?"

Some time ago, Rintak would have taken to his heels as soon as he saw someone like Tahu standing at the end of that alleyway. Instead, on that day, he just accepted it.

"Sure do, have you got the ice?"

A female Agori handed over an open box, full of crystal-clear diamonds. Rintak smirked and nodded his head, passing her a pouch of 'stimulants'. This was his job, but it came with the price of never really being liked by the law. Not that it bothered him. Not at all.

The Agori pointed her gun at Rintak and said, "now, how about a little change? As in, the whole thing?"

"Aww, I don't even get a tip? Extortionate! Heh,"

"Don't make jokes, just hand me the diamonds."

"Sorry, kiddo, but these are mine now, unless you fancy becoming Bone Hunter food. And have you seen the Bone Hunters here on Lunas Magna? Horrible guys. Horrible. Watched them disembowel a guy before, I was lucky enough to escape, you see. Used my special ability."

"And what ability would that be?"

"Well, kiddo, this Glatorian can use Kanohi, and I got me a Kakama."

Rintak was an odd case. He was entirely his own species, the only one. He could control an element and had the mental discipline needed to use a Kanohi mask, but looked like a Glatorian. The perfect disguise, for a job like his.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Spirit of Stone

Toa Jorvell, followed by his team, stalked the rocky plains surrounding Omni Nui, huffing the whole way, on the trail of Shadow Tahu. Hikata and Kringe were beside him, making mental notes, as Zyalho, Ashen and Calliun followed. Ashen and Calliun were no rookies- the Toa of Blue Fire and Plasma were grizzled and definite pundits to many of the other Toa. The Toa of Blue Fire was the second female on the team, as sub-denominations of Matoran elements are always opposite gender to the rest of their 'normal' counterparts.

The team clambered over small boulders and around the larger ones. What started off as a wander through simply craggy heathlands had turned into a trek through the foothills of a mountain range. The moonlight shone deeply into the rocks, revealing the streaks of jade green amongst the grey. Zyalho looked forwards at the Jade Mountains themselves. They were much like the boulders, only they had streaks of grey amongst the green. It would be pretty, if they weren't hunting a dangerous criminal.

"Why couldn't we just take the path?" Kringe whined. Jorvell gritted his teeth. Kringe has been like this most of the journey, and it wasn't putting the older Toa of Iron in a good mood.

"You're the detective. Detect."

"Rahi?"

"No, not Rahi. Think about it. He would have expected us to go by the path, so he would have went the hard way too. Criminals are predictable." Jorvell replied. Kringe nodded slowly.

"But how does he even know we're following him?"

Jorvell felt like punching himself in the face until his head rolled around on the floor.

"The enforcer androids we sent after him in Omni Nui should have been message enough that we know."

In his head, Jorvell was wishing that Kringe would have stayed in New Onu-Koro.

* * *

After their short stop to rest, Shadow Tahu lead his team onwards, and increasingly upwards. The mountains were getting steeper and they were often doing more climbing than hiking. This was no trouble for Tahu, who could scale most of the faces with ease, but the others found it significantly more difficult. Despite Rintak's constant hyperactivity, he was still just an old man, and found it very difficult to climb unaided. Erith only found rock-climbing difficult because it was often her who had to help Rintak, as Tahu was so far ahead.

"Well, he's determined, that's for sure." Rintak muttered, grabbing hold of a sturdy rock protruding from the wall.

"He has all reason to be, with his infection," Erith stated.

"Well if it's so bad, how come you aren't up there with him?"

"I would be up there, if there wasn't a certain slow member of this little, dysfunctional team that needed help."

"Well, ok, I can give you an extra hand climbing now, but I can't carry your weight forever." Rintak replied with a wink of his left eye.

"Carry your weight... I have an idea. Stay here, when I give you the signal, hold on."

Erith took to the wall like a Visorak, clambering up all the way to the top of the near-sheer face in under a minute. From the top, a cramped, rocky ledge, she held her arms over the side and began to extend her tentacles out. They were useless for climbing on a mountain there no trees grew, but what they were good for was carrying. On the horizon, the first slivers of orange crept over the distant cityscape. They'd made it far, that night. Not long to go now, until they got to the Cave of Infections. That was what kept them going.

The others had reached Tahu by early morning, sitting at a gentlier sloped area. This mountain seemed to be an odd shape, gentle at the bottom, steep in the middle and gentle again at the top. So far, they hadn't seen any caves, nor any crevices, potholes, cracks or crannies even vaguely reminiscent of a cavern or chamber. Shadow Tahu huffed loudly and irritatedly, perched in a crouch, as if ready to leap upwards at something. He was mouthing something over and over that the others could not quite recall and drawing odd shaped symbols in the air with one finger.

"Great, the one person on our 'team' who I though knew what they were doing has gone full-Vezon. Bloody brilliant," Erith sighed. Rintak looked up from Tahu's invisible drawing in suspended animation and cast his glance to Erith.

"Vezon? Shh, don't say it twice more, they say he can hear it if you do, from wherever he is in whatever universe."

"It's a just figure of speech. After all, everyone knows Vezon doesn't exist. He's a myth."

The three suddenly looked up from their wayward stares to one point, where an odd, metallic tapping originated from. One clawed foot was tapping a talon-like claw on the hard, jade ground. Silver armour clad the twice-jointed legs, and the rest of the thickly-spined body. Their eyes settled on the demonic smile on his face, a notable main characteristic of the Skadi species.

"Well, I wouldn't be so quick to say that I'm a myth. A legend, yes, for sure! But trust me, and, now, trust you, I am no myth."

Tahu growled at Vezon.

"Ooh, you! I've heard about you. They said things about your Toa days, they did."

"Toa days? I'm still in them, Vezon."

"That's not what they're saying!" The mentally demented Skadi sung.

"Well they must be wrong. State your business, freak, or leave."

"While the leaving part I can't control, I can state my business. You see, I know a few things."

"Surprising, but go on," Erith muttered.

"I know why you can't find the Cave of Infections. It's because it doesn't have an entrance."

"And how would you know that?" Rintak asked. Vezon smirked.

"Skadi have very good eyesight, old man. Ooh, I think it's time to go!"

"But wait, what about-"

Vezon's head started to glow white as the Olmak fused to his skull came into effect, creating a portal around Vezon and consuming him in one swift motion.

"Great, that was real useful," Erith said.

"It could have been more useful than we think... I have an idea," Shadow Tahu proudly announced, with a grin that the others knew should scare them, but only excited them.

* * *

"So, where do you think ol' Shady's going, then?" Zyalho asked Jorvell, not particularly interested, but wanting to break the empty morning silence.

"I don't quite know. It could be as an escape route, but it's an unnecessary and illogical one if it is. He could be looking for a contact, but, again, same thing. Maybe he's headed for a hideout? I'm just not sure. I know, sorry, not helpful."

"More helpful than some of the other sources we were looking for info from..." Zyalho replied, nodding back towards Kringe.

"C'mon, he's not that bad. He's only a rookie, don't be too hard on him. It must be hard to be a replacement, mustn't it?" Calliun sighed, remembering the sadly deceased Toa of Stone that used to be on their team. It was true, Kringe was his replacement, he just hadn't been told. The Toa Omni twisted the virtue of Destiny beyond reasonable comprehension when their most destined Toa had been murdered, and then molested it further when they adopted a new Toa, Kringe, into his place. The Turaga didn't like them much.

"Look, guys, up ahead!" Hikata piped up, folding up a HUD screen above her eyes onto her forehead.

"On one of those cliffs, there... Bone Hunters."

"Could Shadow Tahu be with the Bone Hunters?" Ashen asked, her voice a hushed whisper, almost taken away by the wind. Zyalho and Calliun brought two Midak Skyblasters to their sides from their backs and the others drew various swords, axes and staffs.

"Fire!" Jorvell shouted, urging Calliun and Zyalho to start a rally of shots onto the Bone Hunters' ledge.

* * *

"That plan is ridiculous. It'll never work." Erith laughed. Tahu looked over to Rintak hopefully, perhaps he was crazy enough to believe it'd work.

"Sorry, but I have to agree with her. A bucket of Zyglak skulls could come up with a plan less flawed than than that."

"A bucket of Zyglak skulls could also come up with a Glatorian less ugly than you, but that's not the point. The plan will work, and you can be there to watch it work or you can leave."

"I, for one," Erith began, "am staying. I want to see this blow back up in your face."

"Trust me, it will only blow up in my face if you mess something up. So don't, or I'll mess you up," Tahu threatened.

"Just get on with it."

"So, go over the plan again, will you? I forgot it after laughing too hard at you two arguing like Matoran," Rintak said. Tahu rolled his eyes.

"We wait for an inevitable Toa team to come find us, Erith uses her Felnas to make their powers go haywire and we hope that it makes a hole in the mountain. Vezon said that the Chamber of Infections has no door, so we're going to make one. Where we make the hole, the chamber will be. It's part of the myth, that the chamber was so difficult to find in the first place because it moved. This could be what it means."

"How did you get Erith the agree? I thought she hated the plan," Rintak commented. Tahu shrugged.

"She just did. I reckon she wants to get rid of her infection quite significantly, obvious why."

The two then fell into an odd silence. Erith walked over from the edge and sat down between them, breaking the silence with: "so, hurry up, and maybe we can get off of this stupid rock by midday."

It was unanimously agreed that both the rock was stupid and they should get on with the plan.

* * *

The Bone Hunters retaliated against the Toa Omni by firing down a hail of arrows to them, in a storm of pain that struck the Toa right where it hurt; the gunners. But not before Zyalho had shot a well aimed blast at the apex of the ledge, causing it to become looser than an old nut. Kringe raised his protosteel shield and Calliun ducked for cover behind it, Zyalho instead choosing a large rock.

A few Bone Hunters toppled down the cliffside, followed by more shots from the Toa, to ensure they were out for the count, but not dead. Courtesy of Kringe, stone walls had started to sprout up out of the ground around Hikata and Jorvell, who had both taken command. Ashen had started a lone sprint up a steep slope to a sheltered outcropping that the Bone Hunters were using for cover. Kringe was making this easier with constant aid beneath her feet to lessen the sheerness of the slope, which she was racing up with newfound ease. The Toa of Earth was tiring, though, from exponential use of his element and the constant barrage of arrows from the clifftop marauders. It would only take some heavy, well thrown rock to knock him off guard completely.

"I'll take the shield, you get to cover!" Calliun yelled over the roar of their Skyblasters and the arrows. Kringe nodded, panting, and fled to a rock, focusing all his energy on Ashen's slope. Calliun used the shield to protect himself, which he found much easier than somebody doing it for him, as he fired shot after shot at the enemies. They were falling, slowly, but they were. He dropped the shield.

"Zyalho, gimme a boost! I'm gonna help Ashen!" He yelled over to his comrade, who nodded, and started to create a whisking vortex of air beneath him. The vortex grew quickly, and Calliun soon found himself balancing on it, but only just. The vortex lifted him up to Ashen, protected by constant cover fire and a shield of pure plasma in front of him, vaporising any arrows that got near it. If it were not for the Toa Code of not killing holding him back, he would have already vaporised the lot of them, but that was not allowed. Fine by him, he liked it either way, as long as he got to have fun. And this really was his idea of fun.

Ashen was now at a steadier pace, tired from the run. An arrow was lodged in her shoulder, but it was nothing much. The rest that got near her were usually batted away by her axe or burnt to a crisp by her powerful blue fire, but there was a lot of them, and she couldn't 'confiscate' all of them. A bright white beam threw itself in front of her, incinerating multiple arrows that were destined for her head, as Calliun drew up to her side.

"Hey! I had those!"

"Shut up and get on, Ashen!" Calliun ordered simply. Ashen was more than compliant.

The battle ended with a quick, two Toa skirmish on the main holdup- a small camp decorated with bones, spikes and nets containing various endangered Rahi, likely to be sold. There were a few crates of stolen goods and, of course, a lot of Bone Hunters. Their weapons were either burnt to a crisp or outright vaporised in elemental blasts, but the Hunters themselves were dealt with differently, being left unconscious, in intricate illusion cages made by Ashen's Kanohi Mahiki, as were the ones at the bottom of the cliff. Kringe had recovered and called in a squad of police androids to pick up the Bone Hunters, who would no doubt stay in their cages, due to Ashen's detail.

Kringe was investigating further into the Bone Hunter contraband, with most of his upper body in the huge crates. This was the last one, but his work was sloppy from the start. He pulled out a mixture of weaponry, food, tools, electrical equipment and, right at the bottom, an old Kanohi. It was rusted nearly all over and tarnished where it wasn't. Clearly, this mask was either well used or badly looked after, or both. Either way, Kringe was interested. It looked to him like a great, unfound treasure, that hadn't been touched for millennia.

It was a Kanohi Iden, Mask of Spirit, a very rare and useful mask. However, taking it would be against the Toa Code. He would be banished from Omni Nui and have his title as Toa stripped. However, him having it was a definite, in his mind.

Kringe looked around. The others were all doing other things. None of them could see him from up there. He opened up his backpack and stuffed the mask inside, instantly feeling like he'd done something so utterly rebellious and awesome that it'd take at least a year of doing nothing to balance it out.

Rintak ducked behind a rock to avoid the scouting gazes of the Toa team below. He recognised one of them, a white and orange Toa of Plasma. Dangerous, plasma. And glance at his hand was enough to see that. Silently, he folded away from the hideaway and back to the others.

* * *

"Hotshot, you were right. There are Toa down there, your plan could work."

Erith snorted at this.

"There may be Toa down there, but the plan working is a definite no. It's ridiculous!"

"Are you coming or not?" Tahu asked impatiently. Erith grinned.

"Naturally."

They peered over the edge of the cliff, morphed by the recent attack on the Bone Hunters' base. Tahu watched the Toa planning, plotting together. Four of them were in a circle and the Toa of Plasma was keeping watch over the Bone Hunters. A Toa seemed to be missing, but they didn't quite notice. One of the Toa, clearly the leader, was making most of the group's points, his head looking from one Toa to another as he did so.

"Ready?" Tahu asked the others. In unison, they nodded, then all three of them crawled back, out of sight. Shadow Tahu took a short, bladed, crescent shaped contraption from his back. It was simple looking, but served it's purpose well. He lit the centre of the crescent and a huge fire sword roared into life out of the handle. Rintak took his axe in both hands and Erith drew one ice dagger from either hip, spinning them in her fingers experimentally, grinning.

"You ask if we're ready, the answer is no. But if you were to ask 'who wants to mash up some faces?' then the answer would be yes," Erith said.

"Yeah, that. Mashy mashy."

"In that case," Shadow Tahu announced, "we should get going."

"Tactics?" Rintak asked. Tahu shook his head, causing Erith to giggle. He shot her a glare.

"I'll lead. You follow. Come on!"

Tahu was sprinting. Sprinting. Off of the cliff, and this was no small cliff- oh no; this was a huge, behemothic cliff that rock climbers could only dream of finding. It was leaning at a steep angle that lessened the further down it went, where there were a few indents that had been used as Bome Hunter hideouts. Well, while they were hidden before, they certainly were not afterwards.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey! So, this is Chapter Five, but before I start, I'd like to give a few thanks. Thanks to my good friend who probably isn't reading this, but really helped and encouraged me to write my first fanfiction (this one). Also, thanks to my reviewer, whose advice had been taken! Thanks! Now, without further ado, Chapter Five!

* * *

Chapter 5: Notorious Liars

Tahu was thoroughly engaged in falling. He could have called it flying, but that would be lying. He was ambiguously sane, yes, but he was not a monster. Well, figuratively speaking.

His hands snapped outwards and each blasted out a huge fireball, smashing into the ground below him. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular- the fact that they had almost clipped the back off a Toa of Blue Fire was only an upside- they were to help him land. They did the trick, but not as well as using his adaptive armour would have been. It didn't seem to be functioning properly, presumably due to the infection. It was annoying, but he could deal with it.

"I wasn't falling... I was jumping. Just more down than up," Shadow Tahu professed to the group. They all stared at him blankly for a moment. Jorvell growled.

"Get him!"

Four scrambled scrambled for their weapons, but Calliun already had his gun. He fired a ball of light from the Skyblaster at Tahu's chest.

"You do know I'm merged with the very lightforce of Mata Nui himself, right? Your Skyblaster does nothing."

Jorvell swung his nearly oversized broadsword at Tahu. While he was the tallest of the Toa Omni, he still barely reached Tahu's shoulder; however, that didn't stop the sword being a threat. Tahu dodged backwards, away from the blade. He brought out his firesword and held it in front of him in both hands. While confident on the outside, he was feeling increasingly nervous. Erith and Rintak weren't there yet. Had they abandoned him?

They might have, but somebody hadn't. With an echoing bang of a sniper shot to the shoulder, Ashen yelled out in pain. Tahu didn't recall anybody he knew having a rifle, but he didn't care- somebody was on his side! That, or they had missed. Still, the others had abandoned him...

Well, not so much abandoned as postponed helping.

A thunderbolt struck the ground and after the wake of the bright flash of light faded, Rintak stood upon the charred ground, axe in hand.

"Alright, Toa, we can do this the easy way, or the- woah!"

"Watch yourself, old man!" Tahu yelled, blocking a Skyblaster shot aimed at Rintak with his arm. It stung a little, but the power didn't work on him. It cancelled out.

"So the hotshot can say badass stuff, but I can't? Unfair!" He complained, raising his axe in defence at Jorvell, who was charging at him.

Despite the fact that they were the around same age, Jorvell was much stronger. It wasn't just that, either. He was also a better fighter and taller, with a bigger weapon. So if it wasn't for a well-timed shot to his leg, Rintak would've been chopped in half.

Jorvell peeled off to the side. Around them, most of the other Toa had suffered similar rifle injuries: they were incapacitated, but nowhere near killed.

* * *

Erith got to Tahu's side after scaling down the cliff face with her tentacles, crawling downwards like a spider. Much to Tahu's dismay, a rather slow one.

"Hey, I didn't know you used a rifle."

"...That's probably because I don't, Skadi brains."

"She's right, Tahu, we saw the shots from up the top of the cliff. We didn't shoot them," Rintak said.

"Then it looks to me that we have a guardian angel."

"What should we do with the Toa?"

Rintak looked up.

"Mr Angel hit them, let him deal with them."

* * *

Kringe watched on in horror as his team was brutally taken out by shot after shot of a rifle. Shadow Tahu had powerful allies, then. He sighed to himself when Tahu and his gang left the scene, feeling more than lucky that he wasn't there.

"Kriiiiinge..." a voice sang out. The Toa of Earth looked around. Nobody was about.

"It was nothing, just... Nothing."

The voice sounded oddly familiar to him, like he had heard it a thousand times before, yet it was his first time hearing it.

* * *

"Damn, the plan didn't work. And it was so good," Tahu lamented quietly.

"Who are you kidding, the plan wasn't even put into action."

"Yeah, only because you weren't here to help, Erith."

"The plan was destined to fail anyway, what would the point in helping be?"

"I'm going to rip your throat out and-"

Erith chuckled to herself.

"Wouldn't that be against your Toa rules?"

"Ha, the Toa Code is a joke. I used to be almost completely by the book when it came to rules. Now... Now, they're not really like rules, more like an artist's stencil; I'm not gonna criticise anyone for using them, but I prefer to draw freehand. And I'm good at it," Shadow Tahu laughed like thunder, tipping his head back slightly for dramatic effect. Erith took her two daggers to her hands and narrowed her eyes, Tahu following suit with his sword.

"Guys, seriously, stop picking on eachother like this!" Rintak intervened, not for the first time. Their bickering had become a habit.

"Yeah, let's. Let's pick on you instead!"

"That's not what I said, hotshot."

Erith's harsh tones were a mixture of whisper and shout, as she interrupted with: "shut it, you two, look over there! A door!"

Erith's clawed first finger was pointing towards a rather obvious doorway in the side of the mountain. It gleamed jade green under the midday sunshine, shining with royal beauty. The doorway stuck out of the mountain like a sore thumb, it was a wonder they didn't see it earlier.

"But Vezon said that there was no doorway!" Tahu protested.

"He's a Skadi, and if Skadi are anything, they're notorious liars. And they fooled you!" Rintak mocked, his voice lively and full of laughter, as usual. Only Tahu's growling shut him up.

"So... What do we do?" Rintak asked. It was true, the group hadn't thought about what would happen when they got there. After all, if the Chamber of Infections was so infectious, couldn't it be dangerous to enter?

Tahu's head rose up proudly, even higher above the others, a smug look on his face.

"Well, I'm a Toa," Erith scoffed at this, but Tahu continued, "and so it's pretty much part of my instincts to go into the darkest of the dark places and flush out anything I don't like from there. I'm going in, that's for sure."

Rintak's face was the vision of excitement.

"Oh, great! I'll go with you, after all, we can't have the hotshot hotshotting all by his lonesome, can we?"

"No, Rin, you need to stay here. If this cave is the source of the infection, we can't have some frail old man like you catching it. You two should stand guard."

Rintak sighed and nodded. He looked slightly solemn, he always did like caving- the claustrophobic tightness made him feel right at home- but Tahu was right.

"Hey, why can't I come?" pined Erith, her voice as disgruntled as a Mana-Ko. A big, disgruntled one.

"Are you hearing yourself? Who would want to be in an enclosed space with you? In fact, who would want to be in a cave with anyone similar in any way to any notable attribute of you? Being with you is about as- no, more- unsavoury as shoving an angry Gukko bird down my throat!"

At first, it did offend Erith. She wasn't built as a wall of insult deflection like some people were. Instead, she turned those feelings of emotional pain into rage and blood-boiling fury. Her eyes grew jet black and the spikes covering her body shot out like a cat's claws. Her height was rapidly growing until she was standing head to head with Tahu, her muscles bulging like they'd neer been before. She had underwent the same transformation as Tahu had a few days ago.

"What did you say about me!?" she boomed, shoving Tahu back against the door with two clawed hands.

"I said open the fricking door, you deaf hag! Get in the damned chamber or I'll forcibly put you there!" Shadow Tahu shouted back in response, placing his face right in front of hers intimidatingly. She did notice the change in what he said, but didn't mind that he was lying to her, because it drove her one step closer to getting cured. After all, while they shared a common goal, she wasn't sure she could trust him not to leave alone with the cure and not give her any.

They both simultaneously bared their teeth in a scowl, before Erith pushed past Tahu and kicked the huge, jade door down with relative ease. From the view of her back, Tahu and Rintak could see that huge crystals of ice were sprouting outwards and upwards, twinkling like evil snowflakes of death. Erith turned her head over her shoulder and stole a look at Rintak, then carried on inside.

"Grumpy hag..." Tahu mumbled to himself.

* * *

"Well, that was odd: Shady jumped down, did nothing, and somebody sniped us out. Then two other people came down, also did nothing, then the three left," Zyalho recited.

"It's not adding up. He goes to the Jade Mountains after two seemingly unrelated and uncharacteristic incidents, to do... Nothing. And then walk off like it was just that that had happened; nothing. Doesn't make sense," Kringe sighed.

"Well, if it doesn't make sense to our renowned detective, then it looks like nobody can solve it!" sneered Jorvell sarcastically. Calliun shot him a look that to any normal person would say absolutely nothing, but that Jorvell could read as 'don't be like that'. After working with Calliun for as long as he had, Jorvell could understand each and every one of his looks that somebody who had just met him would suffer to distinguish from pure indifference and neutrality.

Ashen sat up beside Kringe and gave him a gentle whack on the back, with a wink.

"He doesn't mean it, buddy, you know that, right? He's just stressed out at the moment, that's all,"

Kringe sighed again and smiled at her.

"Thanks, Ashen."

He didn't mean it, Jorvell's comment stung him- after all, he was just a rookie at being a detective and to the team entirely- but as an Onu-Matoran, he had learnt to take things as they came: opportunities, ideologies, emotions, and often insults, too.

Zyalho stood up and declared, "I have a great idea, after a while off deep-thought!"

Jorvell growled slightly at the chute-speak coming from the Toa of Air. The Le-Koro slang had always annoyed him, so Zy had got out of the habit of speaking like that in front of him, but that must have slipped out. Jorvell decided to let it slide, as Zyalhi was the first of the group to have any vague idea of what to do.

"Go on," Hikata urged.

"Well, while Mr Shady and his other fellows have gone off to Mata Nui knows where, so they're basically lost to us, we do know where the sniper's shots came from."

Zyalho pointed to the west, his back facing the cliff, standing there; proud of his mighty plan that would surely save the group's behinds in their time of great need. He grinned smugly to himself.

"Nobody else has thought of it so far, gotta give him that," Calliun deadpanned. Zyalho just decided to take it as a compliment and ignore the second meaning.

"We should go for it! It's a good enough plan, guaranteed action, and we'll be getting somewhere with this whole mission! Let's do it," Ashen exclaimed enthusiastically, pumping her fisted hands into the air.

"Yeah!" Zy shouted with her, following suit in her air punches. Calliun raised his gaze from his hand and sat up straight, out of his slouch, to pay attention to the two.

"Hey!"

They looked at him.

"Don't just go broing around without me! How rude of you! And you call yourselves heroes..." Calliun joked, hopping up beside them. Jorvell rolled his eyes slightly at this, though he did respect how well Calliun got along with them so well. Hikata budged up beside him.

"C'mon, let's do it. What do we have to lose?"

"Time. Tahu's trail. Potentially, lives."

"It's the only lead we have," Hikata argued in response.

"No, it's not. We could still find him. If not we, then I,"

Jorvell stood abruptly and started to walk away. Hikata grabbed his arm in a tight grasp. He tried to pull away, lifting Hikata up beside by doing so. Her voice dropped.

"Unity, Jorvell. Working together as a team. Unity. Get it? It means if they want to do something, and it isn't a completelt stupid idea, which it isn't, then we do it. Ok?"

"Woah, since when were you so sassy?"

"Since when were you such a child?"

"Always," Jorvell remarked flippantly, turning back to the group.

"Ok, guys, we're off to the west. Zyalho had better be right, this is important. Basically, if we fail, we blame Zy."

Hikata scowled at him and tapped her foot on the ground.

"Er, kidding, kidding. But anyway, let's stop with the fist pumping and actually get some work done!"

"Yeah!"

* * *

Erith lead through the passage, Tahu skulking behind, lighting the place up with a fireball. The walls were slick with slime and covered in a thick layer of moss and dust. The few patches of bare, dust free stone were palm shaped; someone had clearly been there; and revealed ancient, snaking engravements, lining the whole wall like cracks on a shattered planet. Erith held up the back of her fist and the two stopped dead in their tracks. Tahu clenched his fist around the fireball, putting it out, bathing the pair in darkness.

A thin slither of light fed down to Erith's feet from the end of the corridor. She could see, at the end of the tunnel, a room. From what she was able to even catch a slight glimpse of, she made out that it was circular, with a pedestal in the centre and an air hole in the ceiling. Despite that, the air was stale and muggy. It was like breathing in a swamp.

"Well?" Tahu asked impatiently.

"Room. Stand in the middle. This is it."

Tahu nodded, though Erith couldn't see. It was mainly for his own reassurance.

They stepped into the Chamber of Infections.

The first thing that hit them was that the air was much fresher there; less thick; and slightly sterile tasting. The chamber also felt oddly more quiet than the rest of the tunnel- it was lacking in the moss and dust that covered the walls of the narrow entrance. It was as if the entire room had been kept clinically clean for centuries.

Tahu walked up to the stand, examining it from every side like a detective, before feeling along it with both hands.

"What are you doing?" Erith whispered.

"Why are you whispering?"

Erith glared at him.

"I'm checking for irregularities in the pedestal. Pressure switches, or anything like that."

"Why would there be a pressure switch on an empty pedestal?"

"Maybe it's not the lack of stuff on the top that should concern you, but what could possibly happen if something was placed there. That's why I'm being careful with it."

Erith snorted. From what she had seen, Tahu hadn't seemed very careful about anything before. More like the kind of person to rush into something with a half-hearted plan and hope for the best, relying on luck and little else. He had been very calculating about this, and she hadn't expected it, though getting her to admit it would be impossible.

She sauntered up beside Tahu and slapped his hand down onto the top of the pedestal.

"No pressure plate, moron."

"But if there was, we'd both be dead," Tahu argued.

"Then be happy that there wasn't. I knew this cave was a stupid idea. I'm leaving. It's too sterile in here, makes me feel like I'm under surgery. For a Cave of Infections, it sure is rather clean."

With that, Erith left the chamber and started down the tunnel, her feet patting loudly on the stone floor.

Tahu stayed with his hands on the pedestal top. He sighed slightly to himself, then began to examine the pedestal further.

Suddenly, his Kanohi began to glow, illuminating the chamber and the whole of the tunnel. Black goop began seeping from his hands, absorbed by the pedestal. Something flashed in front of his eyes. A Kanohi that he didn't recognise. The most unsettling thing about it was the two deep, scarlet eyes, staring into his sould unendingly. He moved his hands off the pedestal in a lightning-fast jolt and the vision disappeared.

He had to sturdy himself against a wall to stop himself falling over. Tahu was retching and choking, almost like he'd just caught a disease...

Erith's head showed up beside him. She slapped him across the face, hard. It smarted a little, but he stopped gagging. She mentally noted that his spikes were ever-so-slightly bigger.

Tahu stood to his feet and brushed himself off.

"I think that could have something to do with the infection," he announced.

"No crap."

"It wasn't nearly enough to cause it itself, but it could have been in contact with what did..."

Erith looked him over. The spikes were normal size now.

"What happened?"

"I touched it, then... I don't remember."

"Helpful, helpful. Well, let's get going. That hasn't exactly given us any clues, but I know what might."

When the two exited the tunnel, they were met with two people; only one of whom they recognised.

"Uh, hey guys," Rintak spoke, "this is Devar. He wants to join us!"

Rintak gestured towards a tall, slim person beside him. His armour was purple with black highlights and he wore a Kanohi Nialith, Mask of Emulation. Shadow Tahu sighed. He almost dismissed Devar there and then, but he noticed something about him- well, more about his weapon. Slung over his back was a sniper rifle.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Trip Home

The Toa searched for what seemed like hours in Zyalho's direction, but soon figured out that it too was a lost cause. And, it would seem, it was not the only thing that was lost- they had no clue where they were in the maze of rocky spires and boulders.

"Last time I listen to one of your ideas. This plan got us nowhere and now we have no clue how to get out," Jorvell commented to Hikata. She rolled her eyes a little.

On the horizon stood a short, bulky figure wearing a strange-looking, helmet-like Kanohi. The figure was covered in faded yellow and blue armour. He waved over to them and gestured empty hands to show he was unarmed. Calliun beckoned him over happily.

"Are you Toa? I've never seen Toa before!" the traveller exclaimed. Most of the group gave their kind greetings, except from Kringe, who remained silent, and Jorvell, who just cast him an ugly stare.

"Hey, you wouldn't know how to get out of these rocks, would you. Because if you don't, then you're wasting our time," he said, his voice raspy and cynical. The traveller wad taken aback by this.

"Well, we're kinda smack-bam in the middle of the Jade Mountains, but the quickest way out if the way I'm going, in the direction of the summit, near a cliffy area. Known for Bone Hunter raids, mind you, but it's quick."

Jorvell sent another stare to Hikata.

"Don't look at me like that, you're a Toa of Iron, not Ice."

"We'll come with you, traveller," Zyalho stated, on behalf of the team. Calliun, Ashen and Hikata nodded. Kringe just gazed off into the sky dreamily and Jorvell displayed his usual scowl on his war-beaten face.

"Fine."

* * *

"So you're telling me that we're going to accept this stranger who we have no way of trusting into our group with no information other than that you want him in?" Tahu questioned.

"Well, he did save us. All of us. That's another person I owe my life to, unfortunately, but it's true and you can't deny it," Rintak argued in response. Erith nodded.

"He's right. This guy saved us."

"This guy has a name, you know," Devar insisted.

"This guy should be happy that I'm even letting him come with us without me killing his sorry behind right now," Tahu growled. Devar took a step back and raised his hands up in defence. Rintak leaned close to Devar's head and whispered into his ear.

"Yeah, sorry, he's a spicy one, him. But he's good at heart, even if he don't know it."

"Enough with the niceties. Welcome, thanks for saving us, blah blah. We can get acquainted on the way. For now, shut your trap. Let's get going," Erith said.

"Hey, since when were you the big order-giver? I'm the leader," Tahu stated, placing his hands on his hips and puffing his chest out proudly.

"Oh, yeah, such a great leader to come up with a plan to go to an empty cave."

"You think I don't know what I'm doing, don't you? Think must think I have no clue what my own plan is, that I'm some kind of idiot or something! People talk about the Great Beings, but I am the greatest being there is! Toa Tahu the Firebringer, greatest leader of the greatest Toa team on the greatest planet!"

"Look at yourself! You're a fool! Toa Tahu the Firebringer? You're not worthy of Toa status! Face it, you're a crook, just as good as the worst of us, but with such a thick layer of obnoxious grime covering the top that you can't realise how insignificant you are! When you die, nobody will remember you. Maybe at first people might notice, but you'll be forgotten, as will all effect you've ever had. Ever."

That was too far for Tahu. Erith turned to walk away, feeling she had 'done her job' and mentally formulating the best way she could find a cure by herself, and Tahu, behind her, was mid-tackle in the air. It felt slow motion. Then something changed.

Tahu slammed into the ground behind Erith and she followed suit, completely clamped to the floor. Neither could move little more than a finger without incredible amounts of pain. Devar let off a little 'ahem' to confirm that it was him and, and it was quickly agreed with, that he should speak.

"I'll skip though the part about you two being such a cute couple and just say that I have an idea. I'll tell you, then let you go, and you'll help me get you there without arguments or, or I'll make a black hole with your names on it. Devar, Shadow Toa of Gravity, at your services. So, here's my idea: before I came here, I heard rumours of a place on Spherus Magna known as The New Archives. If something exists, chances are, they know about it. This infection could be in some record there," Devar suggested.

"Let me go. Right. Now," Erith seethed. Devar shook his head.

"That could be damaging to my health, by the look of things."

"Rumours of a place are no help. We need straight, solid facts," Tahu pointed out to Devar. Erith snorted.

"You came here because of something even more unreliable than a rumour- a legend. They should call you Tahu the Hypocritical."

"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here!" the ex-Toa of Fire yelled.

"If it wasn't for me, none of you would be here," Devar calmly stated.

"Ok, ok, we get it, a lot of people saved a lot of other people. I say, we go for Spherus Magna. There's the chance that we lose the Toa after us, if we go there," Rintak piped up.

"Oh, sure, lose those Toa, but instead get every other do-gooder in the known universe after us. Great. Really, that would just be great," Tahu growled.

"See, he liked the idea! We're going," Rintak declared. Erith's jaws were clenched tightly shut and making the noises of an overworked machine- grinding and gritting together.

* * *

The Toa Omni drew near the cliff where they had the face-off with the Bone Hunters before to find the ones they had locked up missing and the scattered remains of multiple police androids in their place. Great. The Bone Hunters had escaped. Inside, Calliun knew he should have killed them, but it was against the Toa Code. Sometimes, he just wished the Code didn't exist. Things would be much more efficient that way.

Toa Calliun was the only one on the team that looked up- well, respected, to say the least- to Shadow Tahu more than hated him. He genuinely thought that he was doing good; Tahu killed crooks, dangerous criminals. Even if his intentions were unclear and sometimes he killed some important people or did some questionable things, he was doing Lunas Magna a favour that the Toa could not provide: death to those who deserved it.

Jorvell stood above the scrappy leftovers of the androids, which the other Toa had gathered into a neat pile in front of him. His Kanohi Tryna glowed white as he activated it's power of reanimation. A few sparking pieces of metal and circuitry begin to float up into the air and connect themselves together, physically weaving into each-other, becoming, though the term is ambiguously and very loosely used, alive, once more. Calliun's own mask was already glowing too, by the time the final pieces of head were fitting into place. It was a Kanohi Rode, Mask of Truth. Androids can't lie, but they were taking precautions.

"What happened?" Jorvell interrogated.

"There were other androids here. They were armed but a pair of thunderbolts hit them, and then they disappeared. The Bone Hunters overpowered us and ripped us into pieces. Then you came," it droned.

"Do I even need to tell you that it's not lying?" Calliun asked, prompting the Toa of Iron to shake his head.

"Tell us more about the thunderbolts," Ashen ordered the android.

"They came out of nowhere and left very few singe marks. The ones that they did leave match some of the ones around the factory in Omni Nui, but not the ones in the alleyway. Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you, that should be quite enough," Hikata replied. She gestured to Jorvell, whose mask stopped glowing. The android fell down to the ground in pieces.

"Well, that was helpful. Kringe, send that back to the 'investigators' in Omni Nui," Jorvell commanded.

"Yessir. Will do."

It was the first thing he had said in a while. Kringe flipped ot his datapad and punched in a message to the investigators, then closed it.

"They're on it, sir."

"Good. Let's get moving."

"Wait, so... You nearly killed all those Bone Hunters? Woah! Even if they did get away, almost killing a whole group of Bone Hunters, that's just... Wow," the traveller praised, his face full of awe. It was clear to him that these Toa were the real deal. Jorvell faked a laugh.

"We're Toa. We don't kill. We incapacitate. And, apparenty, not very well," he muttered, giving Ashen a glare. Calliun then gave him a 'don't blame her' sort of look, to which the Toa of Iron responded with a face that could only possibly read 'screw you'.

The group was back on the move. Jorvell and the traveller took the lead, as Jorvell recounted their story so far. Zyalho and Calliun were giving eachother some gentle banter behind them, as was usual for the boisterous gunners, and behind them was Kringe and the two girls.

"What's up with you? Before this case you were fine but recently, you've been acting... Odd. Are you ok, Kringe?" asked Hikata, tilting her head to the side questioningly, like a confused Rahi.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for worrying, but I'm fine."

Hikata nodded over to Ashen, who tapped Kringe on the shoulder, her Kanohi Chaysmi, Mask of Charisma, glowing.

"Go on, you can tell her."

The mask's effect was immediate. Kringe knew now that he wanted to tell Hikata, even if he didn't seem to understand how important it was before.

"Well, I've been hearing stuff. Voices, in my head," he said, with a sigh.

"Ugh, my mask must be faulty," Ashen grunted, tapping it experimentally.

"He's telling the truth," Calliun sang back to them. Not even thinking about a comment about butting in on their conversation, Hikata nodded.

"I understand."

"No, you don't understand. You can't hear them. They're whispering my name, over and over again. It's weird, they sound familiar, yet I can't put my finger on where from. I swear I've never heard them before in my life, yet it seems as if I know them from somewhere. And the thing is, every single one sounds different. Every single one. All of them!"

"Truth. All of it," Calliun confirmed, before going back to chatting with Zyalho, as if it wasn't such a big thing.

"I get it, I get it. You're hearing voices, and it's not a lie. I get it," Ashen said. Kringe sighed again.

"No, you don't. You just don't."

At the front of the group, the traveller listened closely to Jorvell's stories with a twinkle in his eye and a knowing smile on his face.

* * *

The air was thick between Erith and Tahu as they trekked out of the mountains, the boiling heat of the sun slamming down on Erith's back. Despite the fact that the two were locked in a constant game of death stares, the heat had put Shadow Tahu in good spirits. It felt like home, when he was back in his days of protecting Ta-Koro.

While Tahu and Erith's eyes were continuously fixed in dispute, Rintak was getting along well with Devar, uncovering his past as a Toa of Gravity. Devar was brought back to a time with his fellow Toa, in a team lead by Lesovikk.

Lesovikk lead them to their first mission thinking that it would be easy. The team was made up of several great warriors, but they were only great warriors alone- they had yet to learn how to harmonise with the ways of others on their team and use them to their advantage. They had hardly known eachother for a few days by the time they were sent out for their first, and last, mission.

They were sent to calm a tribe of Zyglak; lizard like, animalistic primitives. This wasn't going well. Whenever one tried to do something, another was trying something else. They conflicted, but, under Lesovikk's orders, decided to just eradicate the Zyglak tribe.

This was ambitious. If calming them was difficult, how much more difficult would killing them be?

Carnage ensued. Lesovikk managed to escape, but it was just him left, as far as he knew. However, amidst the corpses, there lay a scrap of life. Devar's orange heartlight flashed steadily. He was on the brink of death. But that was not his destiny. This Toa's destiny was bigger than that. Bigger than his whole team. Bigger than he knew.

The heartlight stopped flashing. It was fully lit. Devar was impossibly, yet undeniably, alive. While later on, he would grow to see it as a miracle, at the time it was a curse. One thing lingered in his mind.

'He abandoned me. He left me to die.'

And ever since, Devar had been a lone traveller. Nobody knew of him, as all he encountered never escaped his seemigly infinite rage. However, nothing is forever. He hadn't forgiven the Toa for what they had done, quite the opposite, but he was no longer full of anger. He became calm and collected, as he usually would be. He substituted his old weapon, a hammer, for a new one that he himself designed: a sniper rifle. He took it as his personal goal to destroy all Toa in existence.

Soon, he ended up on Lunas Magna, after the newest Toa Team on the block; the Toa Omni. That was when he met Rintak, standing outside that chamber.

"Woah, that's amazing. Fascinating!" Rintak said, awestruck.

"Not amazing, just the workings of destiny, my friend."

"So, that's why you saved us?" Rintak asked, tilting his head to the left slightly. Devar's face seemed uneasy.

"Actually, I thought you were all Toa; distance can do that to one's eyesight. I just missed you three, luckily enough."

Rintak was slightly taken aback at first, but decided that it was destiny after all. A whole lot of it.

* * *

The two groups navigated over the Jade Mountains rather quickly, the Toa never quite having the rogues in sight but always seeming to be on their trail, as if they had caught their scent. The Toa were hunting dogs; stalking under the moonlight, shadows playing across their illuminated masks like leaves in the breeze. The rogues were more hasty; treading lightly on their feet with the speed and stealth of ninjas, making about as much noise as a deadman, perhaps less. It wasn't exactly like anyone was close enough to hear them anyway, though.

By the time the Toa had escaped the rocky clutches of the Jade Mountains, Shadow Tahu's team had got to where they needed.

The outskirts of Omni Nui were used to crime, but only small scale stuff: thefts, muggings, maybe an odd murder- but that all changed 100 years ago, when Tahu took up 'residence' there. He didn't quite have a house, per-say, he didn't sleep. Didn't need to. He had chosen that area because of the tiny police force. The entire city only had one Toa team to protect it, each with their own designated area, but the outskirts was not one of them.

The four walked, their paths masked by the darkness of the night, into an old spaceport terminal. Waiting for them- well, not them, but the people who it was for clearly didn't need it as much, Tahu thought, and wouldn't put up a fight even if they did- was a ship to Spherus Magna. It was a grand ship, named the Vakama I, after the great Turaga of Fire. It had three large thrusters at the back that allowed for huge distance travel. Pipes of coolant ran around most of the chassis of the ship to stop it burning when it entered other atmospheres at high speed. The cockpit- a small, bulb shaped glass dome sticking out of the front, guarded by turret pods next to it, was not nearly big enough to fit any of them except Rintak, as Erith was too tall, Tahu too bulky and Devar simply refused to fly it.

Getting in was easy enough, especially when Tahu brought a Kanohi Kentus, Mask of Technology, stolen from one particular Vortixx into play. The interior of the ship was bland and minimalistic. It was made up of a small cargo bay, bridge, cockpit and two turret pods. Devar took silently to one pod and Erith crammed herself in another. Shadow Tahu stood wordlessly in the centre of the bridge, watching Rintak clamber into his cockpit seat.

"Ready?"

It was the first word spoken for some time.

"Ignition!" Tahu shouted. Rintak flicked a red switch on the control board, causing the ship's engines to sputter into life. It was then that Tahu realised how old the ship, and, indeed, he was. The Vakama I hovered above the ground on it's own base thrusters after the landing gear had been retracted.

"Onwards and upwards, my friends!"

It lurched forwards at first; fast, but feeling slow. This effect soon wore off as Ritak went almost immediately nose-upwards into the sky, facing the blackness of space. Or was that the sky? He couldn't tell. But one thing he could tell, however, was that the great, green and blue orb of a he was headed for was Spherus Magna.

"I'm coming home," Tahu whispered to himself quietly.

"I'm coming home."


	7. Chapter 7

Corruption Curse

Chapter 7: Madness

Toa Kringe felt like he was being watched.

Of course, ever since he had picked up the mask- and, if he was truthful, probably for a while before- he had felt the same, but nowhere near as much. Now he kept feeling the urge to check over his shoulder, where his eyes showed unto him... nothing. He had, at one point, suggested to himself that it was the doing of the mask he had found, the Kanohi Iden, but that was mentally dismissed as preposterous. Masks don't do that... do they? He somewhat wasn't sure.

Then, as he walked onwards, behind Hikata and Ashen, a thought struck him. It seemed absolutely clear to him that his paranoia was caused by the others.

'It's them!'

He tried to shake the thought away. Another preposterity coming from his mind. But the thought wouldn't budge. It was stuck stiff, like it was caught in a trap.

'It's them! Get rid of them, now! You don't need them anyway, do you? Of course you don't! You are a great Toa, and they are misguided fools! They must be killed!'

He didn't know where the thought was sprouting up from. He looked around. Nobody was about but him, the team and the traveller.

Something in his head clicked. It hadn't seemed right from the start, but only then he had noticed it.

It was the traveller.

The traveller's armour was yellow and blue, colours shared by lightning using beings. And then there was the thunderbolt that had killed the androids. The other Toa had said that lightning in the alley didn't explain the explosion at the factory, but in fact, it explained it perfectly- the lightning had caused the explosion! The traveller was the one that had caused all the damage to their team and was possibly also the sniper who took them out and the lightning user in the alley! It made perfect sense to him.

Kringe cleared his throat, causing the group to look over to him. The traveller, at the front with Jorvell, had his main attention.

"'Scuse me, traveller, but what is your name?" Krige asked humbly. The traveller cracked a smile.

"Name's Livewire."

It fitted. Kringe was halfway through scrambling for his sword, when something very odd happened. The Kanohi Iden in his bag started shaking and glowing black. Tendrils started to shoot out of it, cutting up the bag and going straight into Kringe's body, like killer roots in fertile ground. His eyes began to glow bright green and huge, serrated spikes tore out of his flesh, erupting like a volcano made of knives. Long, thick tentacles fired out of his wrists. The Toa watched on in horror as Kringe was transformed into a being highly resemblant of their own enemy. Secretly, Livewire cracked a smile, then his face returned to it's serious demeanour.

'Oh my,' he thought, 'this is exciting.'

* * *

Tahu knew that it would take a long while to get to Spherus Magna, even on a powerful ship such as the Vakama. He remembered back to the first time he travelled interplanetarily; it was to get on Lunas Magna. How greatly that turned out, he though to himself. Transformed into a monster by some fluke chance because something had corrupted the lunar crystals.

The ship jolted suddenly to the left, throwing Tahu off balance. He quickly regained composure, managing to stand upright through a few lesser shudders.

"Just some turbulence from leaving the atmosphere! We are officially in space, my friends!" Rintak cheered. Devar laughed like a drunk and even Erith smiled. The only one that seemed unimpressed was Tahu, who stood steely-faced in the bridge, silent.

The cheerful sounds died down, ceased by a quiet chuckle from Rintak, submerging the Vakama in a dawn of soundlessness, apart from the engines, which roared faintly in the background.

"Are we there yet?"

"Don't you dare, Rintak, don't you dare," Tahu hissed.

"Any anyway, you're the pilot, if anybody should know how close we are, it should be you," Erith pointed out.

"Right, right. I'm the pilot. We are not nearly there yet. Well, we're not nearly there yet, yet. Soon we could very well nearly be there yet!"

The ship was, one again, near silent. This time, though, the sound of the engines was accompanied by Devar, gently tapping on the turret pod window.

"Stop that."

"Sure thing, Hotshot."

Tahu growled at this.

The newfound silence was, for a third time, broken. But this time, not by the doing of anyone in the ship.

It was a metallic clang, then a scraping sound, followed by multiple smaller clangs, like rain on a hot tin roof. Tahu looked upwards into a roof porthole to be met by a scratch running across it's surface, but nothing else in his vision.

"That sure as hell wasn't turbulence. Turbulence doesn't scratch my windows," Tahu grumbled.

"Well, they really aren't YOUR windows at all-"

"Shut it, smartmouth," Tahu growled to Rintak.

"I'm going out to see the damage. If you guys see anything in front of the ship, shoot at it. A lot. Nothing scratches my ship."

Tahu stepped beside the door and pulled what seemed to be a ball of gel-like liquid that defied the artificial gravity. It was cold to the touch and slimy. He dreaded the thought that he was going to have to put this on his head. Slowly, he raised it to his face, and it promptly gorged itself on his entire head, expanding to fit. It felt rather alien at first, but he quickly got used to the outer-space breathing apparatus.

Tahu stepped out of the airlock and into the coldness of space. He shot out his tentacles and used them to haul himself up the side of the ship, trying desperately and just managing not to fly off. When he got to the top of the ship, he saw it covered in long, thick gashes and scratch marks. And there was something else...

The Toa of Fire had heard of space Rahi before, but always had dismissed them as myths, tales, legends. However, crouching logic-abandoningly in front of him, were three winged, clawed, bat-like Rahi. He knew of them and, after him staring at them for a few seconds, they too knew of him. All three simultaneously tilted their heads in confusion. It would probably be a little cute, if it wasn't for the grinding, gnashing, pointed fangs in their mouths, glinting like polished knives. They didn't appear to have eyes, but they did have rather large nostrils.

The globulous breathing apparatus around Tahu's head bobbed around comically as his attention was diverted to the two turret pods sprung into life, firing plasma bolts out at some other space Rahi that were flying around ahead of the ship. They had them covered. Tahu looked back to the other three, or, at least, where they were.

"Dammit!" he cursed quietly, his voice muffled by the breather. Suddenly, and not for the first time of that day, he felt his entire body forced to the ground by a great weight, as if there was a boulder on his back. Two claws landed like swords either side of his head. One of the Rahi had him pinned. The other two swooped down in front of him, sitting there, raising their backs up in defiance. It was like ants crawling on a hatching bird egg.

To Tahu, it seemed that they thought they were better than him. To Tahu, nobody was better than him.

The now very annoyed Tahu threw the first Rahi off of his back and grabbed it out of mid-air by the wing before it had a chance to go anywhere, crushing it, then the other, in his powerful, clawed hands. The other two were slicing, mauling, batting and bashing at his back, which he also found slightly irritating. After tossing the first Rahi away, he grabbed the other two with his tentacles and squeezed them hard.

From what he could gather, the rest of their little swarm had been scared off by Devar and Erith's constant embatterment via the turrets. Tahu retracted the tentacles and threw the Rahi away, launching them far with his powerful arms. His intention was for them to, somehow, send a message to tall others of their kind- nobody scratches Tahu's ship and gets away with half a consciousness.

* * *

Exactly one year ago in Omni Nui, it was a dark, gloomy day. The sky was overcast and foreshadowed rain, but there was none at the time, just a thick moisture in the air. However, Livewire and Erith were not outside, they were sheltered by the Omni Nui energy factory.

However, one was significantly more awake than the other.

"Subject 1: Makuta Erith. Before test. Subject is calmly asleep," Livewire droned, examining the tall, slender, black and white body on the surgical bed before him. She was restrained to the bed using chains, the easiest thing Livewire could find in an abandoned factory.

"Test initiating."

Livewire's mask began to glow bright white, like the summer sun. Long, black tendrils slowly snaked out of his back, over his shoulders and onto the surgical bed, crawling up to Erith. They soon began to grasp at her, wrapping around her limbs and seeping into any and every place they could find.

Erith twitched just once. Livewire smiled like a viper.

The female's skin started to bulge and convulse in places, before countless spikes burst through the surface, cutting the chain restraints. In a violent, subconscious fit, she managed to break the bed and nearly give Livewire a great big smack in the head.

"Subject is reacting with hostility. Subject's nature has clearly not changed, but appearance has. Mutation has taken effect."

Erith's eyes opened. She jolted upright and shot out a tentacle from each wrist, aiming for Livewire, but he simply electrocuted them, causing her to cry out in pain.

"Makuta Erith, you have been of much use to me. Unfortunately, your infection does not contaminate, but there's still time to experiment on others. You, though, are too far gone. Well, nobody's exactly looking for a Makuta in hiding, are they? Time to die."

Livewire electrocuted Erith relentlessly, never giving enough to kill, just to torture her beyond pain until she was completely broken. Then he gave the 'killing' shock.

But the killing shock was not killing at all. With the mutation, came willpower, newfound strength and ability. That didn't stop it hurting enough to knock her out until two certain people came and disturbed her knocked-out slumber. When she awoke, she couldn't remember her old life, only knowing what her name was and nothing more.

Livewire left the building as soon as Erith was unconscious. He travelled for an hour to the other side of Omni Nui, to the Lunar Crystal shrine. He approached the shrine, a towering structure made of white quartz, with the respect of someone that knew they were better than everybody else, but was allowing themself nearness to them anyway. He gently tapped one specially placed crystal, his mask glowing for a short amount of time, then seemingly disappeared.

"Subject 1 didn't change in nature, and that is what I am wishing for. Hopefully Subject 2 will be more promising... Subject 2 approaching target. Test initiated, Toa Tahu is responding well...

Subject 2 attacking innocent civilians. Hmm, I seem to have transformed a Toa into a Makuta. Interesting. But I sense some degree of moral light in him, some willpower. No matter, this is just the prototype..."

* * *

The team on board the Vakama I arrived at Spherus Magna with no other intervening from any space Rahi. Of course, they were forced to land in the centre of a desert so their presence wasn't detected by the police, but the ship was also designed for low-altitude flight, so they were not fazed by this.

The ship glided across the dusty desert surface like a skimming stone, folding over or around large dunes and rocky spires, but simply bursting straight through smaller ones, usually once they were blasted apart by the turrets.

"So, uh, Devar, where even are these 'New Archives' then?" Tahu asked, impatience ringing in his voice.

"Underneath a Glatorian coliseum called Wheleyamis."

"Oh, good. Coliseums. I know this sorta thing, we're gonna have to fight for entry, aren't we? Great," Tahu grumbled, his voice little more than a rough sigh.

"No, actually. All you need to do is ask. Well, not you, they wouldn't just let Shadow Tahu in! I'll ask, then I'll go in, then the guards can be silently incapacitated. Then you go in, get whatever it is you need, and we leave. Got it?"

On the skyline, Rintak could see a large, black dome, standing out from the flat, desert area around it like a sore thumb. A sore thumb on someone's foot. It was made of jet and shone under the sunlight light a black bead. Wheleyamis was the first coliseum to have a roof on, as the Ice Tribe fighters complained about the heat in the sunburnt desert that used to be a part of Bara Magna before The Merging.

As the ship approached to black bead, it became clearer and clearer that this was a great piece of architecture, covered in intricate, silver and gold accented carvings, huge pillars that scraped the sky and giant, arched windows, letting light flow into the coliseum centre and make a spotlight-like effect in the central arena.

Rintak was thinking about how grand the coliseum was, how much time it would've taken to construct. Well, time was a virtue that most people possessed a great deal of, but still, it was magnificent. Erith was pondering on wether the plan would work, while Devar was proudly wondering how it couldn't. Tahu was thinking about how boring not being able to fight would be, as he loudly huffed in resent of that fact.

Rintak drew the ship to a stop just a slight distance from Wheleyamis. Devar clambered lonesomely out and walked up to the two guards standing at the gates. They didn't notice him until he was close, as if they were sleeping, which would be actually rather plausible.

"I request entry into the New Archives!" he loudly and slightly absurdly announced. If the guards weren't awake before, they sure where after that, but only because their rains were awake. Their bodies still seemed thoroughly asleep and probably had for some time; they had certainly seemed better days. But, then again, so had Devar.

One of them nodded slowly to the Toa of Gravity, then synchronizedly nodded to the other. The heavy, golden gates swung silently open, revealing to Devar the grandly decorated entrance room of the Wheleyamis arena. The room would usually be bustling with life of contestants and audienceers of many shapes and sizes, waiting to file into some respective door that would lead to either the arena or the hexagonal viewing stands. Today, though, the room was only habitat to some Matoran and Agori archivists and chroniclers, alongside the guards. Most of them were heading through a doorway that opened out into a downwards spiral staircase. Above the doorway read: 'The Wheleyami Archives', written in gold print.

Devar thought to himself a single, solitary thought. It was a musing of how the concept of silent incapacitation of everyone in the archives had actually seemed sane to him on board the ship.

He stood there, in the centre of the room, breathing a little heavy and looking confused. The latter was an obvious sign for the guards that he may need some assistance.

"Uh, sir, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he assured a rapidly approaching guard.

"But I do have a question,"

"Oh, of course, sir! What is your enquiry?"

The guard was obviously young, judging by his height and the lacklustre voidness of any gruff sounding tones in his voice.

"Can you turn around?"


End file.
